By Boluwatife Ezekiel Olaleye
The Premier League has set a new record as all five of its representatives in this season’s Champions League qualified for the knockout stages.
It is the first time in the history of the Champions League that a country has had five teams in the last-16 stage of the competition.
Manchester City went through as Group F winners despite their 2-1 defeat to Shakhtar Donetsk, while Tottenham are also through in first place having wrapped up their group campaign with a 3-0 win over APOEL Nicosia.
Manchester City went through as group winners
Manchester United and Liverpool qualified as group winners too, with Jurgen Klopp’s side clinching top spot in Group E with their emphatic 7-0 thrashing of Spartak Moscow on Wednesday.
Chelsea, meanwhile, had to settle for second place in Group C following their 1-1 draw with Atletico Madrid at Stamford Bridge on Tuesdaynight.
This season marked the first Champions League campaign in which there were five Premier League clubs competing in the group stage after United qualified following their Europa League victory over Ajax, despite finishing sixth in the Premier League.
It is the first time since the 2013-14 season that all of the English clubs have progressed, highlighting the improvement that has been made this term.
Tottenham have topped their group ahead of holders Real Madrid
Since the Champions League reverted back to a one group stage format for the 2003-04 season, the Premier League has been allocated four Champions League places, but only on six occasions in the previous 14 years has a full complement of English teams succeeded in qualifying for the next stage.
Premier League clubs enjoyed a sustained period of success in continental competition between 2005-2012 when there were eight English Champions League finalists in as many years with Liverpool, Manchester United and Chelsea, all going on to win the competition.
Consequently, it isn’t surprising that during that period Premier League clubs had relatively little trouble in progressing to the last 16, with all four clubs doing so five times in those seven years.
Over the past five years, though, Premier League clubs have found it much more difficult to make much headway in the competition. In each of the last three seasons, one Premier League club has been eliminated in the group stage.
With Premier League clubs struggling, La Liga teams have unquestionably taken a stranglehold of the competition, with the past four winners of the competition all hailing from Spain’s top flight – Barcelona lifted the trophy in 2015 while Real Madrid won it in 2014, 2016 and 2017. Clubs from the Bundesliga and Serie A have provided the sternest competition.
While this is only the second time ever that a nation has had five teams in the Champions League group stages, the Premier League almost made history back in 2005-06 by having five clubs in the competition.
After Liverpool had won the Champions League in 2005 but finished fifth in the Premier League, they were given special dispensation by UEFA to compete in the qualifying rounds alongside their Merseyside neighbours. Everton, though, failed to reach the group stages, losing in controversial fashion to Villarreal in the third qualifying phase.
Only once before has one country had five participants in the Champions League and that was in 2015-16 when Spain had five clubs; Real Madrid, Barcelona, Atletico Madrid, Valencia and Europa League winners Sevilla.
Real Madrid and Atletico Madrid both progressed all the way through to the final that season with Zinedine Zidane’s side triumphing on penalties, but Sevilla and Valencia crashed out in the groups. Furthermore, only four times in the last 14 years has a full complement of La Liga teams reached the last 16.
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